punctuation
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)
- something that makes repeated and regular interruptions or divisionsType of interruption, break
- the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrasesSynonyms: punctuation markType of markKinds parenthesis, apostrophe, ampersand, quotation mark, bracket, semicolon, question mark, comma, colon, swung dash +5 morePart of orthography, writing system
- the use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phrasesType of groupingKinds hyphenationMember of orthography, writing system
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: Cf. F. ponctuation.
Grammar The act or art of punctuating or pointing a writing or discourse; the art or mode of dividing literary composition into sentences, and members of a sentence, by means of points, so as to elucidate the author's meaning.
☞ Punctuation, as the term is usually understood, is chiefly performed with four points: the period [.], the colon [:], the semicolon [;], and the comma [,]. Other points used in writing and printing, partly rhetorical and partly grammatical, are the note of interrogation [?], the note of exclamation [!], the parentheses [()], the dash [—], and brackets. It was not until the 16th century that an approach was made to the present system of punctuation by the Manutii of Venice. With Caxton, oblique strokes took the place of commas and periods.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54